And it was then, while I tossed and turned in my darkened bedroom, that I had a realization. It was possible, maybe even likely, that I was never going to see the sun again.
I knew it depended on when and if the shifters attacked me. I knew it depended on whether or not I'd be able to defend myself. But I also knew that because I'd be leaving well before dawn, if they attacked me right away, and I wasn't able to defend myself, I'd never be seeing the sun again. I'd never again feel its warm rays on my face. I thought about how I may have seen it for the last time earlier that day and hadn't even known it. And this thought made me a little misty. I wanted to help save a little boy's life, and I felt that I had to. But I didn't want to die.
And while I sniffled, looking up at the moonlit ceiling, I became seized by fear. I thought about dragon shifters and their massive claws. I thought about wolf shifters and their sharp teeth. And I suddenly wasn't so sure I was going to be able to take a single step outside the city walls. I was going to have to have Mayor Erickson push me, literally push me, out.
But then, I thought about what little Matthew might think if word of this somehow got to his family, and him. I was sure it wouldn't do much to bolster his confidence in the person who was going to try to help save his life. I was sure that it wouldn't do much to encourage him to hold on and keep fighting.
Wiping my eyes, I knew I couldn't have Mayor Erickson push me through the city gate. I was going to have to walk through on my own, like the grown adult woman I'd insisted to Mrs. Baker that I was. But it wasn't going to be easy. And I wasn't exactly looking forward to it.
I eventually fell asleep after more tossing and turning and a little more sniffling. I slept in stretches of an hour or two. And when my antique, wind-up alarm clock rang at a quarter past three in the morning, I was already up, sitting on the side of the bed. I'd been staring out at the darkness beyond my bedroom window for at least five minutes.
After showering and getting dressed, I added a few additional items to my large backpack, some of them being a few favorite pieces of my mom's jewelry, and the others, family heirloom-type things. I figured having these items close by on my journey might give me strength. And I knew I was going to need all the strength I could get.
I stepped out the front door of my little house at four on the dot. The town was dark and still, and the mayor was already waiting just beyond the front porch. After a hushed good morning, we set out down the dirt lane that would eventually lead us to the only exit gate in the several miles of stone wall that surrounded the town. I'd only actually seen the gate a couple of times in my entire life, once as a teenager doing some sort of silly dare with friends, and once while hunting deer with other townsfolk. But never on my own. The gate was at the end of a very densely-forested part of town with a lot of tree shade in the warmer months, which made the area slightly spooky. Not to mention the thought that shifters could be just beyond the metal bars of the gate, could maybe even extend a clawed wolf paw through the gate, was a spooky one in and of itself.
The mayor carried my large backpack for me while I carried my bow and a drawstring bag of arrows on my back. We walked in silence past rows of houses on either side of the lane, and then past some businesses, and then past nothing. Or, nothing, anyway, except forestland that became increasingly dense as we walked. It was early August, and the air was humid, though not extremely so. A pleasant warm breeze rustled the leaves of the trees.
Eventually, when we were maybe a half-mile from the gate, Mayor Erickson glanced at me and spoke. "You ready for this? No second thoughts?"
I shook my head. "Nope."
Of course, that wasn't exactly the truth. But it seemed a little late in the game to express any thoughts about being afraid I was never going to see the sun again. I'd volunteered for the task; it was happening and I knew it'd do no good to second guess myself. I knew the only way I was going to get through the day, and maybe even the next several days, was to be confident and fearless. Or, at least, as much as I could be.
We fell silent again until we reached the gate. A few early birds in the trees nearby began to chirp in the dark. Mayor Erickson lit a candle to see the lock on the gate better in order to unlock it, and he handed the candle to me to hold. And it was only then that I realized my hands were trembling. The flame of the long white taper candle danced from side to side just enough to make my trembling apparent. Though if Mayor Erickson noticed, he didn't say anything.
He produced a large key from his pocket and inserted it into a massive lock connecting the iron gate to an iron hook drilled into the stone wall adjacent to it. But before turning the key in the lock, he looked up at me. "I'm going to want to re-lock the gate the second you're out, so I'll just say this now. Thank you, Daisy, for what you're doing. Best of luck to you. I hope you find the herb and come home soon. I'll have a few men here at the gate in shifts over the next week or so to let you back in."
His words were just what I needed to hear. Finally, someone who acted as if it were at least possible that I might return home.
I thanked him, and he turned the key in the lock. And after a little jimmying, the lock clicked open. After that, everything seemed to happen in a blink, though in reality, it was probably ten or fifteen seconds.
Mayor Erickson traded me the candle for my backpack, and I slung it around my shoulder.
He then opened the gate a large crack, just wide enough for me to get through. "Quickly, please. Good luck."
Knowing that stopping to really think about what I was doing, even briefly, would be a mistake, I slid through the crack without even a moment's hesitation, leaving the confines of Stone River for the first time in my life. And almost instantly, I heard the giant lock click shut.
Mayor Erickson blew the candle out. Then immediately turned and began striding back up the lane. "Godspeed, Daisy."
And then I was alone. Alone on the other side of Stone River. More alone than I'd ever been in my life.
I knew it was inevitable what I had to do next. I had to turn from the gate and look at my surroundings. I had to look at what was essentially, my new world. A world where shifters lurked. And so, forcing my body to move, I did. I was still in darkness, I really couldn't see much, just the dark outlines of trees in the forest ahead of me. But I didn't hear any growls or flapping of wings that would indicate wolf or dragon shifters, so that was good. Though just the same, I got an arrow out and strung it in my bow, deciding that making my way through the woods prepared and ready for an attack would probably be smart. Not that I'd really ever truly be ready for a shifter attack.
The sky had lightened just a degree with dawn approaching, just enough to go from midnight blue to maybe navy blue, and this, combined with moonlight and starlight, was enough for me to see that the path on the Stone River side of the gate appeared to continue on through the woods, though this side of the path appeared stonier and much narrower, with overgrown vegetation on the sides, as if maybe it had been made a very long time ago, maybe even before The Catastrophe.
Not wanting to waste even a minute when I could be traveling under cover of darkness, for whatever little good that might do me, I set out. I figured that while it was still dark out, at the very least, it might make it harder for dragon shifters to spot me from the air. Also, I'd read in books written pre-Catastrophe that unlike in many other parts of the country, wolves in Northern Michigan tended to head back to their dens well before dawn to sleep. And of course, I wasn't quite sure if this information also applied to wolf shifters; at any rate, I figured that in this predawn hour, I was probably as safe as I was ever going to be.
With stars twinkling above me, I crept down the dimly-lit, stony path. After a few minutes had passed with the hoot of an owl being the only animal noise, I stopped creeping and began just straight-up walking, my confidence increasing. My hands slowly stopped trembling. The sky got a little lighter, turning from navy blue to a very deep violet. My big backpack didn't even feel as heavy as I'd thought it might be.
I walked for probably an hour straight, maybe even a little more, before stopping. Even then, I stopped only to get out a knife to hack some overgrowth from the path and then check my compass to make sure I was heading west, as I should have been, which I was. It was by no means full morning now, though it was much lighter. The sky was a velvety deep lavender, the shade lightening by the minute.
I continued on, daring to think that maybe, just maybe, not only was I actually going to make it back to Stone River, and in one piece, alive, but that maybe I could even be back by that afternoon, which would give the doctors plenty of time to turn the rare herb into a tea and give it to Matthew. They'd said he still had probably at least two days before his life would be in serious and immediate danger.
When dawn broke in brilliant shades of gold and orange, filling the whole forest with a warm glow, I actually had to work to stop myself from humming and whistling. I'd survived to see another sunny day. Despite the gravity of my mission, I was beginning to feel a little high on being outside of Stone River for the very first time. I was also beginning to feel that maybe the townsfolk were wrong about the shifters -- surely not wrong about their existence, but maybe wrong about how many there were and how close they were to the town. Maybe things had changed since the survivors of The Catastrophe had scrawled information about the shifters in notebooks immediately after it had happened. Maybe many of the shifters had killed each other since then.
Not long after dawn, the sunlit forest became a little warm and I stopped to pull my long honey-brown hair into a ponytail to get it off my neck. Then, realizing I was a bit hungry and thirsty, I actually took a little break to eat some peaches from a glass jar and drink a bottle of water before continuing on.
With birds chirping in the trees all around me, seeming to be spurring me on, I made good time. Judging by the sun's position in the sky, I guessed it wasn't any later than ten o' clock by the time I entered the valley where the medicinal herb was supposed to be growing in relative abundance. Desperately hoping that it still was, I said a silent prayer that nothing had changed in the past hundred years. And within a few minutes, my prayer was answered.
Between the two hills that flanked the valley, there was a grassy clearing maybe forty or fifty feet wide. And right smack in the middle, so perfectly in the middle there should have been a bulls-eye around it, sat a large cluster of flowering plants. I recognized the herb by its distinctive tiny purple flowers and dark, glossy green leaves. I took off for the cluster of herbs at a sprint, laughing a little.
Maybe ten minutes later, I'd cut as much as would fit in my bag, knowing that the herbalists would be able to make tea powder with it that would last for years, and they'd probably also be able to plant the seeds of the herb to cultivate it in Stone River again.
I'd just stood up from the cluster of flowering plants when I heard growling.
*
The growling was coming from somewhere behind me. I cringed. My backpack, which was now stuffed with the rare herb, fell from my hand. I'd been so close. So close to leaving the valley with the herb that would save Matthew.
But I knew that might still be possible, if I could just be brave enough, and strong enough, and fast enough. I'd set my longbow and arrow on the ground, and I snatched both things up and whirled around, locking the arrow on the string and drawing it back even as I did so. And I hadn't even had a second to spare. To my horror, two massive gray wolves, one charcoal-colored and one lighter, were charging right at me.
I didn't even know which one to aim for, though I didn't exactly have much time to decide. The lighter gray wolf was closest to me, so on instinct, I just went for him. And my arrow would have probably found its mark. But at the last minute, both he and the other wolf went wide, racing right past me.
I immediately grabbed another arrow from the drawstring bag on my back and locked it in the string. But when I turned in the direction of where the wolves had gone, they'd disappeared. Instead, two human men were walking toward me, although I knew that they weren't quite human; they were certainly shifters. And although I couldn't understand why they'd shifted into human form, I certainly wasn't going to wait around to be killed.
I let my arrow fly, aiming at the darker-haired of the two, who was also the biggest and tallest. But, to my complete astonishment, he caught the arrow in mid-air, snapped it with one hand, and kept on walking, leering. My stomach twisted into knots, and reflexively, I began walking backward, reaching for another arrow.
But my fingers were shaking, and before I could get a good grip on one and pull it out of my bag, the dark-haired man, who, along with his partner, was now less than twenty feet away from me, called out.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you!"
I froze, unsure of just what I should do. My mouth went completely dry. But something about the man's leer told me that I needed to act, and fast. I needed to continue to defend myself. And so, willing my shaking fingers to close around one of the arrows, I finally got a grip on one and drew it from my bag. But by the time I fitted it in the bowstring, it was too late. The men were within feet of me.
The dark-haired one closed the distance in one long stride, snatched my arrow, and cracked it in half in one hand again, narrowing his dark eyes. "Failure to follow directions. I'll have you cured of that in about an hour. And you can trust me about this."
All I could think of was Mrs. Baker, and how she'd been so right, and how I'd been so dumb. I didn't respond to the dark-haired man, and after a long moment, he snorted.
"Cat got your tongue? Well, that's fine. I don't like women who get too chatty, if you get what I mean. Screaming and begging is fine, though. And in fact, I encourage that. Feel free to do all of that you want over the next hour or so. Really does it for me for some reason. Oh, and by the way, that's now officially how long you have to live...one hour. That should be all the time my friend, here, and I need to have a bit of fun. And you should be grateful for that. Because at first, we were just going to outright kill you for sport. But then I thought to myself, Well, not so fast, Ezra. It's not every day you find a random escapee from Stone River, or even every decade. Let alone one with such yummy, luscious curves. So, we should take full advantage of this." He took a step closer to me, his dark eyes glittering. "And I'm just assuming that's where you're from...Stone River, because...well, where the hell else would you be from?"
I wasn't sure if I should issue some kind of response, though I didn't think I even could. The shaking that had started in my hands now seemed to be spreading to the rest of my body, and I was having difficulty forming rational thoughts, which I just assumed would make forming sentences that weren't complete gibberish near impossible.
But fortunately, I didn't even have to try. Because just then, the shorter of the two shifters, a man with light brown hair, made a decidedly non-scary, non-threatening gasping sort of noise while pointing at me, or at some part of me. It was honestly the kind of noise a little girl might make when seeing a fun new toy.
The darker-haired man, Ezra, glanced at his companion, frowning. "Yes, she's got nice tits. I see."
The lighter-haired man shook his head. "No, look. Her hand. Look!"
I was still holding my longbow up to my chest with my left hand, more than a bit protectively. And now, Ezra joined his friend in peering at it.
Instantly, his dark eyes widened, and his jaw fell open a degree or two. "Well, I'll be damned. A Woman of the Star. And the first one ever."
Dumbfounded, I could only guess they were talking about the tiny, well-defined, star-shaped birthmark on my left hand, right between my first finger and thumb, though I had no clue why it might be of special significance, or what a Woman of the Star might be.
Ezra suddenly turned to his companion. "This changes everything. Now she's all mine. And we definitely won't be killing her. Now I'll be taking her as my mate." He paused, giving my hand another thorough look before shifting his gaze back to his friend. "Now, you stay right here while I dr
ag this little bitch into the woods and make her scream."
Suddenly seized with panic and terror, I began trying to beat him around the head and face with my bow. "Leave me alone! You won't do this to me!"
But he just yanked my bow away and flung it over his shoulder, leering. "It must be my lucky day. Finding a Woman of the Star, a girl with smoking hot curves, and a girl who I just know will be a wild screamer, all rolled into one." With his dark eyes glinting in the bright sunlight, he traced a finger along my jaw. "Nice pretty face, too. Pretty pink full lips. I hope you won't be too shocked in a minute, here, when I tell you where I want you to put those pretty pink lips first."
Heart hammering in my ears, I turned and began sprinting. "No!"
But I didn't get very far before someone grabbed my ponytail and jerked me backward.
I clawed at the hand, shrieking. "No! Let go of me!"
To my complete shock and relief, whoever had my hair, probably Ezra I assumed, instantly did release me, and I went staggering forward. Not even a second later, I heard a great whoosh noise coming from somewhere up above. I was already running back toward the forest as fast as I could, but I looked up, craning my neck, and saw two enormous dragons, diving. One of them, a dark gray dragon, breathed a jet of fire from his mouth, making another whoosh noise. Behind me, I heard growling. Putting two and two together as quickly as I could, I figured that the wolf and dragon shifters must not be friends, and some kind of a major fight was about to happen. I also figured that mercifully, I now had a good shot at getting away.
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